Personal Independence Payment: South East

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which of the 21 personal independence payment consultation centres serving South and East England cannot be reached within (a) 90 minutes and (b) 60 minutes by public transport from all parts of their catchment area.

Michael Penning: No claimant should travel more than 90 minutes (single journey) by public transport, for their consultation. As part of the process Atos, as the assessment provider in the south and east of England, will offer an assessment at their nearest location and it is only when that location is full would claimants be sent to an alternative site. As part of their bid, Atos stated that 75-90% of claimants will have no journey longer than 60 minutes. In the exceptional circumstance where a claimant is unable to make a journey within 90 minutes via public transport Atos will offer either a home visit or the ability to use a taxi.

Social Rented Housing

Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the estimated real terms rise in housing expenditure due to rises in social sector rents, expressed in cash and percentage terms was, in each year since 2009-10; and if he will estimate the likely change in such expenditure in 2013-14.

Steve Webb: The information is shown in the following table. In 2013-14, eligible rent growth is lower due to the removal of the spare room subsidy, which reduces housing benefit (HB) eligible rents for social sector tenants where the property is underoccupied.
	
		
			 Impact of yearly social sector rent growth on HB expenditure 
			  Social sector case load (Thousand) Average social sector eligible rent (£ per week) Real terms growth from previous year(1 )(%) Impact on expenditure (£ billion) Percentage of housing benefit expenditure (%) 
			 2008-09 3,117 73.58 — — — 
			 2009-10 3,227 77.66 4 0.5 2.5 
			 2010-11 3,306 78.48 -2 -0.2 -0.9 
			 2011-12 3,346 82.72 3 0.4 1.8 
			 2012-13(2) 3,378 88.56 6 0.8 3.4 
			 2013-14(2) 3,349 89.76 -1 -0.2 -0.8 
			 (1) Real terms is calculated as rent growth above the growth in the gross domestic product deflators updated on 20 March 2013. (2) Impacts for 2012-13 and 2013-14 are based on Budget 2013 forecasts as full out-turn is not available for these years. 
		
	
	Impacts for each year are independent and do not account for eligible rent being higher due to growth in previous years.
	This impact is estimated based on analysis of the single housing benefit extract (SHBE) administrative data. It assumes eligible social rents have grown in real terms by the percentage shown in the table for all recipients on the case load in September, representing mid-financial year and compares this to if eligible rents had remained stable in real terms. This is based on the average growth for Great Britain overall, which is affected by the mix of claimants on HB, particularly geographically. Therefore if this analysis was done by region, or other breakdown, the impact would be likely to change.
	This method assumes the eligible rent variable on SHBE reflects actual eligible rents; however, this variable is sometimes reported incorrectly. This is expected to have a small impact on the analysis.

Universal Credit

Charles Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he will take to ensure that local authorities have the relevant information to know when housing tenants have been transferred to universal credit; by what means he expects local authorities to know where to apply switchback arrangements for the avoidance of arrears; and if he will make a statement.

Esther McVey: We will announce transitional arrangements for the managed migration of existing housing benefit claimants to universal credit in due course. We have a process in place to notify the relevant LA when a HB claimant becomes a UC claimant so that the HB claim can be closed down(1).
	Under normal circumstances(2), local authorities will not administer a claimant's housing costs once that person has migrated to universal credit, so the Department will not inform local authorities about new benefit claims. Local authorities will not operate the "switchback arrangements" (managed payments of housing costs to landlords).
	Where a local authority is a claimant's landlord, it is the responsibility of the tenant to advise the LA of their universal credit claim. When a tenant reaches a specified level of rent arrears, LAs should, like other landlords, contact the UC Service Centre with evidence of the arrears to request DWP intervention(3).
	(1 )Someone currently getting HB can become “a UC claimant” if they become the partner of an existing UC claimant.
	(2 )The exception is that, in the short term, LAs will continue to meet the housing costs for claimants living in supported exempt accommodation within the housing benefit system.
	(3 )DWP interventions are:
	(a) A re-assessment of a claimant's budgeting capability when they have built up arrears equivalent to one month's rent. This may result in personal budgeting support or a time-limited alternative payment arrangement, if the tenant is persistently underpaying; and
	(b) Time-limited managed payments of the UC housing costs to landlords when a tenant has built up arrears equivalent to two months' rent.